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I love books! I counted the shelves one day & there are over 25 shelves of books in our house. And it isn’t limited to my hubby and I–we have been building a children’s library since my oldest was born 5+ years ago.

Toddlers & Board Books

In the beginning, we had a small 2 shelf bookcase filled with board books. Since I am a little particular about things being put away, we had a small (12 inch x 12 inch) basket that we taught her to put books in when she was done.

Children’s Picture Books

After we started amassing a collection of picture books, we bought a larger 3-shelf bookcase. The bottom shelf originally held many of the board books and the others held picture books. Soon, the picture books swelled to fill the whole shelf & board books live in a LARGE (3ft x 3ft) basket.

Having 3 shelves & a basket is where we have set our hard limits for children’s picture books & board books. If there are more than fit, some need to be passed along to others.

Secret Book Management Tip – Electrical Tape

I have a trick that I’ve used for keeping the books organized, now that my 5 year old is old enough to put books back on full shelves —

Yep, electrical tape. Since many of these books are used for ‘homeschooling’ I like to know where to find them. I purchased a 10-pack of colored electrical tape for the spines and set them up library style.

Top shelf

Middle shelf

Bottom shelf

Black – Disney books. Yes, there is a whole shelf of Disney books. We like Disney in the Steed house :).

Practical Aspects of Children’s Book Management

Now that Lil Bit is old enough, it is her job to re-shelve books, even though her sister usually pulls them all off while looking at them. When her sister is big enough we will pass the torch :).

I haven’t done it yet, but plan on doing similar things with the homeschool books I’ve collected, perhaps by subject. In addition, I hope to rearrange the books shortly, putting the mindless & annoying books (or twaddle, as Charlotte Mason, calls it) in their room so we don’t have to read it as often :).

Chapter Book Expansion Plans

We plan to expand to a 5-shelf bookcase in order to make room for the chapter books we have for reading-aloud, plus space for new chapter books for blossoming readers. It won’t be long now :).

We are going to try to keep to 2-3 shelves of picture books & 2 shelves of chapter books. I anticipate that the lower shelves will be more vigorously pruned (and/or packed away) as everyone outgrows them.

Wow. I had planned for this to be a short & sweet post about using electrical tape so kids can shelve their own books. I had no idea I had been thinking so much on this topic!

How are your children’s books organized? Do you have hard space limits?

1 Comment on Children’s Book Management {WFMW}

Very good tip! Our children’s book shelves looks exactly like yours minus the organization. 🙂 Seriously thanks for the tip…and right here at spring cleaning time…which I also haven’t started. LOLStephanie´s last blog post ..Growing My Faith

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Happy Little Homemaker contains articles, tips and tricks for the top 5 priorities of the Christian woman's life - God, taking care of yourself, Marriage, Parenting & Homeschooling and Home Management.